Análisis de los Efectos de la Acreditación Institucional en las Funciones Sustantivas de las IES Desde la Perspectiva de su Comunidad Educativa: Estudio de dos Casos en Colombia

Abstract

Institutional accreditation is the most widely accepted mechanism, both nationally and internationally, to assess the high quality of HEIs. This doctoral thesis aims to analyze the effects of institutional accreditation on the substantive functions of higher education institutions - HEIs - from the perspective of their educational community and provide recommendations to public policy regarding the evaluation of the high quality of the HEIs in Colombia, based on the information, knowledge of the participants and the results of the investigation. The research is based on the interpretive paradigm. To achieve the objectives of the study, the mixed approach, explanatory sequential, quan-QUAL and the case study method are used. The results show that the educational community of accredited HEIs perceives that high quality institutional accreditation has both positive and negative effects on institutional functioning and therefore the public accreditation policy is susceptible to improvement; recognize that accreditation allows organizing, articulating and standardizing the administrative and academic processes of the Universities, however there are opportunities for improvement in matters such as the stability of teachers and the educational experience that is lived in the University as preparation for students to assimilate future academic and professional experiences. The study allows us to conclude that teaching and research are the substantive functions in which the most changes towards improvement have occurred as an effect of high-quality institutional accreditation, while the most lagging behind is extension.